Building work to expand a grammar school has begun to cater for booming pupil numbers.

Borden Grammar School in the Avenue of Remembrance, Sittingbourne, has already increased its intake for Year 7 from four to five classes over the past two years, boosting numbers from 120 to 150 boys a year.

But space is so sparce that pupils have had to have lessons in two mobile classrooms.

Now construction company Kier Group has been awarded the £6.975m contract to build a two-storey teaching block including specialist classrooms for science and IT, staff rooms and a three-court sports hall.

The work will include a lift and staircase and is expected to take more than a year.

Since the project was first mooted, additional investment has been made in the school including solar panels on the roof, artwork along a new sports hall and better drainage using a soakaway.

Rory Love, Kent County Council's cabinet member for education and skills, said: “I am delighted to see this permanent expansion of Borden Grammar get under way.

“The demand in Swale for extra secondary school places has required an increase in both the selective and non-selective provision.

"The work at Borden, as well as planned new accommodation to be built at (nearby) Highsted Grammar School for Girls, will enable them to continue to take five forms of entry on a permanent basis and help meet the demand for grammar school places.”

Some of the cost is coming out of contributions imposed on developers building new homes in the area.

Kent County County has asked for £3.08m. Of that, £313,229.77 has been promised and £72,658.64 has been received.

The school, founded in 1878, was rated Good in its most recent Ofsted inspection in November 2021.

KCC blames the increased demand for places on a boom in births from 2008 to 2012, more people moving to the area and new families because of extra house building.

Education bosses admit the situation has been made worse because hundreds of pupils from Sheppey are also schooled in Sittingbourne every day.

Many parents are boycotting the Island's only secondary school, the Oasis Academy, which received a damning Ofsted report last year.

The school, which has sites at Minster and Sheerness, was sent reeling after a devastating surprise visit by the education watchdog over two days in June which branded it 'inadequate'.

It vowed to invest a further £1.6 million following the report.